The Color Honeymooners - Collection 4 DVD Review

[TJ]

From the sun and fun capital of the world, Miami Beach, the Kramdens and Nortons come together one last time for more Honeymooners sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show! The Color Honeymooners: Volume 4 contains 12 of the 13 episodes from the 1969-1970 season the final season we ever saw these characters on TV on a regular basis, in a three-disc DVD set.

The Color Honeymooners turns the classic 50s series that was set in Brooklyn to a musical 1960s series set in Miami Beach. The characters are still the same, though the wives are played by different characters. Many were recreations of those classic 50s episodes, but some are new ones written just for this version of the series.

Read our review by Skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/thecolorhoneymoonerscollection4dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Just a few corrections to your review.... regarding unaired episodes on American Life cable....."The World of Ed Norton" never aired but the other unreleased on DVD episode "Life Upon A Wicked Stage" airs in regular rotation on American Life. secondly the first set did contain an extra, "The Gleason Express" a film of jackie's famous florida train trip and the 4th set contains the mentioned terrific extras...so MPI had extras on two of the 4 sets....your quote was "after all those sets without extras", so just to clarify 50% of the released sets had extras....a way better track record than other companies like sony and paramount....MPI has done a terrific and timely job of releasing the color honeymooners which couldn't really be profitable for them, but they are a company who cares about quality over quanity and profit....kudos to them! BTW...I received my 4th set early and watched the extra's and the 1973 sketch, though not really hysterical, is a joy to have and quite historical...here's hoping we will see the 1976 reunions some day officially released by MPI!

[MrBand]

Collection four is coming? Yipe, I better hurry up with watching season three. Then again, I only watch one episode a week; I'll let you all speculate which evening. ;)

I've believed the pictue quality on these shows is not bad, given their age. Everything always seems vivid, though I guess the sets were dressed to take advantage of broadcasting in color, which was becoming the rule rather than the exception at the time. Maybe everything just seems to pop after watching the Honeymooners in black and white for so long! :lol:

I'm glad for the 1973 special, though I would have hoped for all of it, even if the rest was other Gleason character sketches. However, I commend MPI for giving us complete shows and not just the edited versions from American Life.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Just a few corrections to your review.... regarding unaired episodes on American Life cable....."The World of Ed Norton" never aired but the other unreleased on DVD episode "Life Upon A Wicked Stage" airs in regular rotation on American Life. secondly the first set did contain an extra, "The Gleason Express" a film of jackie's famous florida train trip and the 4th set contains the mentioned terrific extras...so MPI had extras on two of the 4 sets....your quote was "after all those sets without extras", so just to clarify 50% of the released sets had extras....a way better track record than other companies like sony and paramount....MPI has done a terrific and timely job of releasing the color honeymooners which couldn't really be profitable for them, but they are a company who cares about quality over quanity and profit....kudos to them! BTW...I received my 4th set early and watched the extra's and the 1973 sketch, though not really hysterical, is a joy to have and quite historical...here's hoping we will see the 1976 reunions some day officially released by MPI!

While looking at the airdates listed on the inside cover I noticed that the last airdate is incorrectly listed as being from feb 1969 when it should be feb 1970....just a head's up for everyone!

[W.B.]

Besides the usual "Gleason Players" as constituted in the final four years of Gleason's run on weekly television, another "bit player" in the final season was the Norelco PC-60 camera (complete with TelePrompTer and the "CBS (eye) Color" stickers on the camera sides) that was CBS's designated color camera at the time. It made a brief appearance in the opening moments of the "Ralph Goes Hollywood" episode, and also in the beginning of the first scene of the part of "The Honeymoon Is Over" where the Kramdens and Nortons appeared on The Mike Douglas Show. (Ironically, Mr. Douglas' show, then based in the studios of KYW-TV in Philadelphia, used RCA TK-42 cameras at the time, later switched to RCA TK-44A's.)